In England of the medieval period, serjeants-at-law
wore, as a required mark of their station, a close-fittinghood covering all but the face.
As a consequence of this special headdress, they were known also asserjeants of the coif and their corporate
society as the Order of the Coif. When wigs came into fashion,the symbol became a circular piece
of white lawn fastened to the top of the wig. What gave significanceto the Order was the fact that for
centuries only its members were appointed judges of the Court ofCommon Pleas or, later, of King's
Bench.

Members of Coif were drawn from the
four greater Inns of Court. According to a 1537 account given bySir John Fortesque in his De Laudibus
Legum Angliae:

The chief justice of the common bench is accustomed, with the counsel and
assent
of all the justices, to choose, as often as seems to him opportune, seven
or eight of
the persons of more mature age who have become more proficient in the aforesaid
study of the law, and who seem to the justices of the best disposition;
and he usually
sends their names in writing to the chancellor of England, who thereupon
by writ of
the king of each of those chosen commands that he shall be before the king
at a day
assigned by him, to take upon himself the estate and degree of serjeant-at-law.
(Translation by Chrimes, 1949, p. 21.)

Serjeant Alexander Pulling's volume,
The Order of the Coif, written toward the close of the nineteenthcentury, stresses the ceremonial
aspects of the creation of a serjeant-at-law at the height of the order'simportance.

The white coif of the order was placed
on the head of the serjeant-elect with the same solemnity asthe helmet was formerly placed on
the head of the knight, and the lord chancellor, lord keeper, or lordchief -justice to whom the royal
power was intrusted, addressed the newly made sergeants in a veryelaborate address, setting forth
the antiquity, honor, dignity, rights, and duties of the serjeants-at-law.

In describing the various proceedings
attendant upon the creation of new sergeants, Pulling reliedheavily upon the accounts given by
Dugdale in Origines Juridiciales, first published in 1666 with additionsin a second edition of 1671.
In turn Dugdale borrowed from Fortesque to the point of "transcribing"
fromDe Laudibus what had been there written,,
adding some notes on the "making" of serjeants-at-law andthereafter subjoining "what I have
met with from good authorities, touching the manner thereof insucceeding times; and lastly exhibiting
some notable instances touching the magnificence of their Feasts."(Cap. XLI). The result
is endless detail in Caps. XLII through Llll concerning the form
and order of thecall to serjeantry; the items of
food and their value required for seven days of feasting at the expense
ofthe new sergeants; the gifts of cloth
and rings required of them, with itemization of the yardage in thecase of cloth and weight in gold
of the rings; the robing of participants in the several ceremonies involved,with detail on the responsibilities
of attending stewards; and every other aspect of any pertinency. (Reprintof 1879, p. 240).

With the break from the Inns of Court',
the sergeants repaired to the sergeants' inns, where they quarteredin association with the judges.
If later they were elevated to the bench, they continued to be members
ofthe Order. Once sergeants of the
coif, they remained so, subject only to discharge by the crown. The
onlychange in status was the disassociation
from the former brethren in the Inns of Court. Members of the Orderserved in various capacities in the
administration of English justice. One of these appears to have been
that offunctioning as judges at nisi prius.
The more- distinguished serjeants were called by the crown to fulfill dutiesas attorney general and solicitor
general.

Although at any one time,, according
to Pulling, there were few members of the Order, the total over theseveral centuries during which the
institution flourished was great. Pulling's table of "Serjeants of
the Coif,With Date of their Creation" requires
twelve pages of print in the forepart of his volume. Included in
the totalare a not inconsiderable number whose
names will be remembered as long as English cases and English legalhistory are studied: Bacon, Blackburn,
Blackstone, Campbell, Cavendish, Coke, Coleridge, Fortesque, Glanville,and Littleton, to identify the best
known.

The origins of the Order of the Coif
are largely lost in the mists of antiquity. Pulling lists as the
earliest serjeantof the coif one Geofrey Ridel, 1117,
and names several others "created" before 1200. Chaucer makesreference to "a Serjeant of the lawe,
war and wys" in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales. And Pulling
statesthat the Order antedated the greater
Inns of Court, the obscure history of which may be traceable back to thetime of Chaucer.

The heyday of the English order was
the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Its strength
continuedinto the eighteenth century, and
yet that period was marked by rumblings of dissatisfaction with the exclusivitythat constituted its foundation.
The issue came to a head in 1839 when a crown warrant directed to CommonPleas commanded it to permit "gentlemen
of the bar generally" to practice before it. Feeling bound to obeythe mandate, their lordships "'ordered
it to be recorded, and proceeded to call upon the other gentlemen of thebar to move." (In the Matter
of the Serjeants at Law [1839] 6 Bing.) [N. C.] 187.

Five sergeants protested that only
Parliament possessed the authority to revoke the ancient privileges of
theOrder. Taking the matter under
advisement, at the next Term the Judges heard argument between SerjeantWilde and a barrister by the name
of Newton who was not of the degree of the Coif. In the Matter of
theSerjeants at Law, [1840] 6 Bing.
[N. C.] 232. The Judges' decision in support of the Coif claim
came the nextday. Id. at 235. But
victory for the Order of the Coif was short-lived. By the Supreme
Court of Judicature Actof 1837, it was enacted "that no
person appointed a judge of either of the said courts shall henceforth
berequired to take, or to have taken,
the degree of serjeant-at-law." The two courts to which reference was madewere not Common Pleas and Queen's
Bench as such but the Court of Appeal and the High Court of Justice, whichby the statute were made the two
divisions of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England. Integrated
into theHigh Court of Justice were both Common
Pleas and Queen's Bench.

As a result, Serjeants of the Coif
lost their cherished privilege, and with that the Order lost its significance.
Withthis parliamentary action it became
possible, without a shadow of constitutional doubt, that, as the lord chancellorobserved in response to a question
put him in the parliamentary session of 1877, "there was nothing to preventthe crown from creating new serjeants
if it were thought expedient to confer the honor and there are membersof the bar who desire that rank."
Pulling cites this episode with the concession that "shorn of its old advantages,there is a positive discouragement
to those who would otherwise desire to take this rank." Not surprisingly,
it isrecorded that the last meeting of
the English order was held April 27, 1877.

Just two years into the present century
there was established at the College of Law of the University of Illinois
anhonor society for recognition of
high academic attainment. Typical of campus resort to Greek letters
forprofessional as well as social fraternities,
the new society adopted the name of Theta Kappa Nu. Nebraska,Missouri,, and Wisconsin soon affiliated.

At Northwestern University School
of Law in 1907 a similar feeling of need for recognition of outstanding
studentscholarship led to the organization
of a society designated as The Order of the Coif. With the Anglophile
JohnHenry Wigmore as dean, it was plausible
to surmise that the suggestion for a suitable name came from him.
Thisconjecture is substantiated by William
R. Roalfe, who was for eighteen years law librarian of Northwestern, in
hisbiography of Dean Wigmore.

In 1910 Northwestern accepted a charter
in Theta Kappa Nu, and the next year Iowa and Michigan werechartered. Differing practices
among the growing number of Chapters led to a national convention in 1911.
Itwas there determined to recommend
a merger of the two organizations under the name of The Order of theCoif This recommendation and one
for a revised Constitution were ratified by the constituent Chapters, tobecome effective in 1912. Provision
was made for the chartering of other Chapters in law schools thatdemonstrated the quality of legal
education constitutionally specified for admission. Four additional
charterswere granted in 1912, including Pennsylvania
in the East and Stanford in the West', with three more in 1915.Yale was chartered in 1919.

Dating the American Order of the Coif
back to 1902 made the year 1977 its seventy-fifth anniversary. Taking1877 as marking the end of the Order
in England, 1977 also marked the centennial of revival of Coif across theAtlantic.

There are now seventy five Chapters
of Coif in American law schools, additional ones having been establishedin every decade following the period
of World War I. Chapters are federated in a national organization under
anational Constitution that specifies
the conditions for admission of additional Chapters, stipulates the standardsgoverning election of students, faculty
members, and honorary members, establishes a national executivecommittee, and provides for recognitions
and awards by national and individual Chapters. Creation of newChapters is a demanding procedure
designed to ensure that member law schools offer a distinctly superiorquality of education.

Coif members drawn largely from law
teaching serve three-year terms on the National Executive Committee,others for indefinite terms as officers
of the local Chapters. Student eligibility for membership is basicallyrestricted to those in the top 10
per cent of a graduating class who have taken at least 75 per cent of theirlaw studies in graded courses.
Individual Chapters may impose additional qualifications. Faculty
membershipin a Coif school qualifies for election.
Election to honorary membership by a Coif Chapter is reserved to thosewho enjoy high distinction for scholarly
attainments.

Distinctive recognition of legal scholarship
is given through Coif's Triennial Book Award, which is conferred onthe author or authors of outstanding
publications evidencing creative talent of the highest order.Determination of those honored in
this way is made after exhaustive review of legal and legally-related writingby a carefully selected committee.
The first award was made at the annual meeting of the Association ofAmerican Law Schools in 1964.

The Constitution of 1912 underwent
several amendments over the years but remained in force until recently.A thoroughly revised instrument became
effective February 25, 1976. One of the new provisions authorizesthe National Executive Committee
to elect to honorary membership in each triennium not more than fivemembers of the legal profession who
have attained national recognition for their contributions to the legalsystem. The first elections
of national honorary members were announced at the 1976 annual meeting
ofthe Association of American Law Schools.

The insignia of the American Order
are the Certificate of membership, the Badge of membership, and the Key.All types of membership certificates
and keys exhibit in relief the figure of a serjeant with wig as headdress,topped by a coif of circular form
made of linen. All are of a distinctive design long identified with
Coif. TheBadge of membership, worn with academic
regalia, is directly patterned after the coif itself as it was affixedto the wig.

All initiates receive a pocket-sized
handbook printed in the colors of The Order. Reprinted annually,
thehandbook contains the list of Chapters,
the names of past and present officers and other members of thesuccessive National Executive Committees,
the Coif Constitution, and a capsulized history of The Order.

Another symbolic tie with the English
Order is an approved ritual for use in the induction of new members.The best features of several different
versions of ritual have been incorporated into a form available toChapters. Included in the approved
ritual is an oath analogous in spirit to that taken by the Englishsergeants, as reported by Pulling.

A directory published in 1991 lists
alphabetically and by Chapter all those elected to Coif on one or anotherof the described bases from the Illinois
group of 1902 through the present. Elections, primarily of graduatinglaw students, recently have run more
than fifteen hundred a year. The total membership over seventy-fiveyears exceeds twenty-five thousand,
who have given much strength to the profession as attorneys, judges,or teachers.

There is thus an affinity between
the American organization and the English that makes entirely appropriatethe use of the name of the ancient
and distinctive Order of the Coif.

*With minor alteration, this History
is reprinted with permission from Frank R. Strong, Order of the Coif,
EnglishAntecedents and American Adaptation,
63 Amer. Bar Assoc. J. 1725 (December 1977).